ERP/Therapy

I find while doing exposures, rarely does my anxiety lessen. It usually amps up and stays that way for the remainder of the day. I could be having a fairly decent day, but dutifully do my exposures and then the rest of my day is anxiety filled. I guess that’s just how it is now? Also, I’m wondering if my therapist even believes I have OCD. I totally understand my therapist cannot provide reassurance. But it’s to the point it seems my therapist acts like I actually did the thing I fear. I feel so isolated.

desihope

Date posted: 8d ago

That was my experience at first. I really didn’t want to do my exposures because it would just make my OCD worse for the next day… until I finally broke through to the other side. It was a 20+ minute exposure, so now I know that I must endure through the part where I feel like running away to get to the release

Looping

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 8d ago

@desihope Thank you—that is helpful! I just need to trust the process.

Zoey98

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 5d ago

Totally get this! I spent days and then months in high anxiety from OCD exposures and such. It felt like the exposure was all day. What I realized was that I was so obsessed with the anxiety going down that it made my anxiety worse. I would ask my therapist when will the anxiety end? And she said “respond with I don’t know when this feeling will end. It will but I don’t know when and that’s ok” After doing that for 2 months I am doing much better.

Looping

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 5d ago

@Zoey98 Thank you! I’m trying so hard to just accept my anxiety and just let it be there. It seems so unnatural but I’m trying. I’ve been in a good place before and hope to get there again!

Anonymous777...

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 8d ago

It feels that way at the beginning but I learned that the whole point is to learn to sit with the anxiety that I’ve been avoiding my whole life until eventually my brain doesn’t detect these exposures as anxiety inducing anymore. It’s hard but trust the process. You got this!

Looping

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 7d ago

@Anonymous7775999 Thank you

Anonymous

Date posted: 7d ago

Hey, thank you for making this post because I used to struggle with what it sounds like may be happening to you. So what was happening with me is I was doing tons of exposures but it would just make it worse, not because I wasn’t doing them well enough , but because the things I was exposing myself to wasn’t actually the fear. my fear turned out to actually be the OCD itself!! I had no idea , but I have a super strong fear of the OCD itself and not a fear of anything I thought. So what I’m trying to say is there is a point where you’re doing too much exposures. Maybe try using erp on that thought of “what if my OCD gets worse if I don’t do this exposure”. I don’t know if that helped. Let me know if this is what’s happening to you. It took me a few months to figure that out and I don’t want you to go through all that mental pain like I had to just to find my fear.

Looping

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 6d ago

@Anonymous Yes that makes sense and I’ve started to wonder if I’m focusing too much on doing the exposure “right” so that it will “work” that it’s becoming an obsession/compulsion in itself. Argh. Thanks for the advice!

Anonymous

Date posted: 5d ago

@Looping Yeah for sure! Glad I could help! I’d talk with your therapist about this fear because it can make all the difference.

meglucy

Date posted: 25w ago

Started therapy & unsure 😔 ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT!!

I feel like my therapist knows my issues well enough by now, why haven’t we started erp or why hasn’t she given me any strategies to help when I’m triggered? I’ve had 4 sessions. She just says we have to stick to the method that she works by, but if I don’t know when we will start the work that actually helps me, how can I feel confident in sticking with the therapy? I am so unsure. I keep asking her but she never gives me an answer. It’s not too much to ask to know when the help will actually start is it?! If the next couple of sessions go by and we still haven’t talked about strategies or erp, I will get so anxious because I can only afford 12 sessions 😔 I don’t know what to do. People are saying to be patient and go with it, but I can’t trust it. I would have expected to start some sort of erp plan. If in the next couple of sessions we haven’t started it, what should I do? (I get really triggered by phrases like red flags or that doesn’t sound good in the comments, just objective advice would be so appreciated 🙏🏻)

Anonymous

Date posted: 25w ago

disliking ERP

I just started working on my first exposure today with my therapist after screening and creating the lists for several weeks now. We did an exposure together and now I feel 100x worse than I did coming in. I won’t go too into detail but it involved looking at a VERY gory image that had to do with my fear of natural disasters. I called my mom and talked with her and she was shocked and wondered how in the hell that would help me! I agree. Did any of y’all feel this way when you first started or is this just not the right kind of therapy for me?

Freddy327

Date posted: 17w ago

Waiting for therapy

Hi everyone. I'm feeling kinda scared because I have to wait a whole month to start ERP therapy, but I feel like I need to start doing exposures now because the longer I wait, the more anxiety I get. It just feels like the OCD monster is getting worse. One thing that helps me is asking one person about an obsession I have...asking a person that I trust, and then doing an exposure after I get the "ok" to do it. I feel like I do need 1 reassurance and then I can go ahead and do it. I know i'm not supposed to ask for reassurance at all, but i dont think you're supposed to do ERP on your own right? Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do while waiting for therapy? PS-the reason there is a wait is bc she's on vacation. After she's back we will meet regularly.

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